Finding the good

My computer was in the fix-it shop for SIX DAYS last week. Six VERY LONG DAYS.

Things you can't do when your computer is in the fix-it shop:

--Find out who is sending you messages via e-mail and assuming you got them.

--Watch Office episodes you'd missed.

--Confirm that the local theater company mispronounced Jean-Francois Millet 1,000 times during its play.

--Get the agenda of the Kaysville City Council meeting.

--Broadcast your family news to the family newsletter.

--Find out what the stock market is doing at any given second and why.

--Get directions to your next appointment.

--Draft letters and stories for various assignments.

--Download pictures and send them off to interested parties.

--Locate hotels for future travel plans.

--Post new blog entries.

Things you have to do instead:

--Wait in line at the library with mostly pre-teens, for your turn at the computer.

--Get all your Internet business done in 30 minutes due to library rules.

--Listen in on the couple next to you at the computer, who are trying to get a $20 gift card for spending $100 at Walmart by yelling at managers on the phone, while sitting at the library computer.

--Clean your desk at home.

--Clean the drawers in your desk at home.

--Clean your toenails at home.

But, as with every trauma in life, good comes of trial. And this good comes just in time for Thanksgiving. Now, in addition to my usual appreciation for home, family, food, health, church and country, I am thankful for:

--Computers

--Phones of all types

--Cars

--Planes -- so, so grateful!

--Cameras

--Furnaces

--Men who fix computers

It's a great time to be alive!!

Oh, and could I add ... sunsets?!

Out of kontrol

The world would be a simpler place if "cat" started with "k" and "knife" started with an "n" and "face" was spelled "fase." At least in English-speaking countries.

Why do we even have a letter "c" anyway? And why does "s" sound like "sh" in sugar?

I'm not sure how all these variations on exceptions came to be (kame to be), but they never really bothered me until I started teaching English to someone from a totally different culture with totally different language experience. And no writing or reading at all.

How on earth can one teach the differences of the shapes like b and d and p and g, when they're so similar in looks with such a minor variation in sound? Couldn't somebody have come up with symbols that were easier to distinguish?

This falls into the ever-enlarging category of: things I can't change because they're out of my realm of control.

Things like winter coming before you're ready for it.
Or health-care legislation that takes reams of paper to print when all that really needs to be passed is law #1 -- everybody has to have health insurance and law #2 -- nobody can sue doctors for more than $x million.
Or like oil refineries that are eye-sores and safety hazards to your community but that got there before you did so you're stuck with them.
Or like effects of aging that are no fun but better than not aging.

When things are out of your control (kontrol), you just have to go with the flow. That's the lesson that I'm giving my friend from Somalia along with the English lessons. As I try to show how letters become words, like how "b-o-w-l" becomes "bbboooowwwwllll" by sounding it out, and then how "c-u-p" becomes "cup" by sounding it -- oops doesn't work -- I just shrug my shoulders and shake my head and smile and say, "funny English."

That's all you can do sometimes. Shrug your shoulders, shake your head and say, "funny world."

Lights of Massachusetts

Take an ocean and add a lighthouse and you've got something pretty exceptional.

There are many who are inspired by the beacons that have meant safety to seafarers over the years. I count myself among them.

Many thanks to Kraig of http://www.lighthousefriends.com/ for guiding us to these Massachusetts lights:

(The top three are of Eastern Point Light on Cape Ann from different angles. Those below are Cape Ann (Thatcher Island) Lights, then Annisquam and then on Cape Cod: Nauset and Highland. On Nantucket island: Brant Point and finally on Martha's Vineyard: Edgartown Harbor Light, East Chop Lighthouse and Gay Head (Aquinnah) Lighthouse.)

By the numbers:

Massachusetts lights -- 62 (as near as I can tell)

Those we saw -- 20

Those we saw at sunrise -- 3

Those we saw in storms -- 4

Those we went in -- 2

Those we were close enough to touch -- 8

Those we saw from the sea or across a harbor -- 9

Every setting was different, every light was unique. Every one perfect in its own way.

These too

The moon had perfect timing that night.

Just because

Just because I like it.

History and Literature

You get a lot of history when traveling in New England. History that celebrates discovery, revolution and independence.

One day in our travels the history largely revolved around literary figures, their homes, their writing and their inspiration. That was the day we started in Salem at the House of Seven Gables made famous by Nathaniel Hawthorne and ended at Walden Pond, Thoreau's inspiration.

In between we saw Orchard House, home of the Alcotts; The Wayside, home at various times of Hawthorne and the Alcotts and Margaret Sidney; and Emerson's home.

The most fascinating thing of the whole day? For me it was a comment on an informational sign in the house where Hawthorne once resided. I haven't been able to confirm it, but it struck me.

It said Hawthorne was a bit of a recluse at times and that when one of his books got bad reviews, he gathered up the copies he'd given to his friends and burned them all.

That just does something to me. Me, who can't throw away an interesting article or give away an old shirt. Me, who doesn't sell many books but keeps writing new ones anyway. Me, who can't take 20 steps in a new place without taking a picture of it and can't delete even the bad ones because someday I might want to see things from just that angle.

Because you can't relive it. Or rewrite it. Or recapture it.

So you have to embrace it. Imperfections and all.

Even if no one else does.

Top: The House of Seven Gables

Above: Orchard House

Below: The Wayside
Below that: Emerson's home

Above: Replica of Thoreau's temporary home near Walden Pond.

Below: Walden Pond. (I bet he didn't stay in much.)

He does too deserve it.

He didn't ask for it and was the first to admit he doesn't feel worthy of it, so it's just plain wrong that President Obama's getting the drubbing the world is dishing out for being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Especially when he does in fact deserve it.

Yes, so he was nominated early in office, but those making the decision have had these nine months to consider it. Perhaps in that time, they have seen what I have seen:

--Steps have been and continue to be taken to close Guantanamo, a blight on American belief in freedom and justice.
--The missile shield program that caused such tension with Russia has been dropped.

In addition, Obama has been seen:
--Reaching out with rationality to the world's Muslims.
--Meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders (remember Bush waited seven and a half years to address that issue).
--Speaking candidly to the UN about what America can and can't do.
--Being willing to talk to leaders of rogue nations (Bush just called them names).
--Pulling out of Iraq to the extent possible.
--Taking a long time to consider the ramifications of an Afghanistan build-up.

Wasn't there even something about shutting down more of our own nuclear arsenal?

Why didn't anyone think of these things before? Doesn't each lead to peace?

I applaud Obama's efforts to use diplomacy and to go where others have not thought to go.
I applaud the Nobel committee's decision.

I believe all these moves will in fact lead to greater peace in our crazy world.
And I hope all those criticizing will take a step towards peace as well, by letting it go.